Do you suffer from decision fatigue—or can’t you decide?
Last week's challenge was to make a thorough Worry List, then either let the worries go or make a plan. So how did it go? How do you feel?
One simple definition of a plan is a series of decisions made in advance on
how we will respond to a future moment. Systems, strategies, and structure are all forms
of planning.
So why is planning so important when living in the moment is the ultimate goal?
Well, the first reason is something called decision fatigue. A key foundational concept for our life coaching methodology is that deciding is suffering.
It's estimated that we make over 35,000 decisions each day that's a lot of
Suffering. It results in something called decision fatigue.
It turns out that one of the most powerful ways to increase energy
and reduce overall fatigue is to reduce the number of decisions that we make in
a day.
Another reason planning is so important is that with each decision we make, we increase the probability of choosing unwisely, especially if the decision is made—you
guessed it—when we're fatigued. That results in things like matching tattoos on a first date and mullet haircuts. What happened? I don't know.
The last reason that planning is so important is the most important one.
If we truly believe in our planning process, if we truly believe in our systems, strategies and structures, it absolutely does free us to live in the moment and let go of worry in a chaotic
world. We learn from the past and plan for the future so we can live powerfully in the
moment.
This week's challenge is to simply focus on how many decisions we are making each
day and to look for ways to reduce that number so we can focus more on doing
only that which is truly important to us with the people that truly important to
us. The only moment that matters is right now.